John Daly, for all his complexity, is first and foremost a golfer

John Daly's major decisionAfter shooting an 88 in last week's Buick Open, John Daly isn't sure he will play in next week's PGA Championship, the tournament that rocketed him to fame in 1991. He is taking this week off to work with his swing coach, get laser surgery on his eyes and contemplate the rest of the season.

ALOHA -- What would you do for living if you weren't a professional golfer?

The question was asked Monday at a clinic at the Reserve Vineyards and Golf Club. John Daly, the hugely popular, always controversial PGA Tour star, had no real answer.

"There really isn't anything else I think I can do unless I lose 50 pounds and do porn," Daly said.

The line drew a big laugh, but it also underscored the complexity that is John Daly. On the one hand, there is the enormous golf talent and the charisma that have made him an everyman golfer who seems far more relateable than, say, Tiger Woods.

It's this aspect that made him such an asset at a fund-raiser for Pacific University's athletic department, which included a Sunday auction and a clinic and celebrity tournament Monday. This is a two-time major champion who fellow PGA Tour winners Brian Henninger and Tommy Armour III, also part of the clinic, called the finest ball-striker they'd ever seen.

But there also is the darker Daly, the one who gets into trouble, marries and divorces at country-song frequency, a man of excess and short cuts. This is the Daly who was suspended for six months by the PGA Tour starting last November because of several off-course incidents.

Maybe it was this side of Daly that his handlers had in mind when they asked reporters at the Reserve not to ask about Daly's play in last week's Buick Open, where he shot 88 -- including a 51 on his second nine -- and missed the cut by a mile.

But Daly wasn't exactly reining himself in.

"Mentally, I'm screwed," he said. "But physically I feel great."

Certainly, he looked good, thanks to losing 80 pounds since February. Personal trainer? Dietician? Jenny Craig? Nope. Daly dropped his weight with Lap-Band surgery, a procedure in which a band is placed in the stomach to limits how much you can eat.

"I'm a proven fact that you don't have to go run and work out and do all that to lose weight," Daly said. "This Lap-Band thing, this technology is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me."

Daly is such a fan that his 17-year-old daughter also had the procedure, and he reports she has lost 30 pounds in six weeks. In fact, he believes so strongly in Lap-Band, he says it should be part of national health care.

"They talk about how many people are obese in this world, in our country," Daly said. "Obama's talking about how he's going to cure the health plan, that should be part of it if you want to cure obesity."

Still, the rapid weight loss has not been easy on Daly's golf swing. Daly has been working with teacher Rick Smith, but says his slimmer physique has made timing a challenge. In shooting the 88 Friday, Daly hit two balls out of bounds on a par-5 on which he scored a 10.

The tournament was the sixth week in a row Daly had started a tournament (he withdrew from one in France because of back pain), with four tournaments played in Europe. Daly says he probably should have taken a week off. Though he played well at the British Open, by the time he returned to North America to play in the Canadian Open and Buick Open, Daily was tired and his confidence was shot.

"I actually got on the first tee and I thought, You know what, I can't win here -- I can't win," he said. "That's the first time that's ever happened in 19 years on tour."

Daly says the biggest problem might be his putting, which he traces to poor vision. He says he has a stigmatism in his right eye, and when he bends over to putt, "everything looks slanted," and he is unable to line up his putter face correctly. Daly plans to have Lasik surgery Wednesday, and hopes that will correct the problem.

"The eyesight's been really tough," he says.

After that, he plans to go home to Arkansas and practice, with Smith scheduled to join him for four days. He says if things don't look better, he might skip next week's PGA Championship -- the tournament he won in 1991 to start his meteoric rise. Daly, of course, got into that PGA as an alternate after other players dropped out, making him even more cognizant of how precious each spot is.

"It's no good to take somebody's spot and just not play good, if I don't feel like I can," he said.

And yet, it's hard to believe Daly won't play. He's a pro golfer and as he said Tuesday, there's nothing else he can think of to do.